Improvement in steelyards



J. HOLCOMB.

Balance Scales.

No. 34,754. Y Patented March 25, I862.

@ ghll llll'lllll UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JEDEDIAH HOLCOMB, OF BRANDON, VERMONT.

IMPROVEMENT IN STEELYARDS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 34,754, dated March 25, 1862-.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, J EDEDIAH HoLooMB, of Brandon, Rutland county, State of Vermont, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Steelyard-Balances; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full description of the same.

The nature of my invention consists in the method of constructing a steelyard -beam with an open head for the purpose of reducing the leverage between the fulcra on which the beam is supported or suspended and the knife-edge or hook on which the weight is suspended, so that the capacity of the steelyard can be increased without increasing the weight or length of the steelyard-beam, as has to be the case where the props are inserted in a single beam, on account of the space required between them for the attachment of books to suspend the beam and weight thereon; but to describe my inventlon more particularly I will refer to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, the same letters of reference Wherever they occur referring to like parts.

Figure 1 is a plan view of the steelyard. Fig. 2 is a side view of the same. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the steelyard-beam, having an outline of red of the head as attached to it. Fig. 4 is a side view of the beam.

Letter A is the open head, having on its outer edges props or fulcra B, upon which the steelyard is supported or suspended by any of the usual contrivances for such purposes. In the back of this head is formed a mortise on a line with the opening 0 through the front of it. The object of this formation is to admit of the insertion of the back end of the weighing-beam D, and which is secured therein by means of screw-bolts E through it and the flanges on the edges of the opening 0. In this weighing-beam is inserted the knife-edge or pin F, on which the weight is suspended to be weighed. This pin is inserted in the beam previous to its being secured in the head, and may therefore be made to act as a leverage of not more than the sixteenth of an inch (or less in small balances) without interfering in the least with the entire freedom of motion of the beam in consequence of the space required for suspending it or the weight. It will be obvious that in large government steelyards this arrangement would be of the greatest importance, not only on account of the cheapuess of the apparatus, but 011 account, also, of the reduction of size and weight of metal, as by my invention a beam two feet long could be made to weigh articles which nowrequire, by government weighers scales, from, five to seven feet length, besides enormous counterpoise-weights.

It will be obvious that the usual and wellknown counterpoise-weights and platforms are to be used, and therefore have omitted to exhibit them in the drawings.

Having now described my invention, 1 will proceed to set forth what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States The use of the open head A, substantially as set forth, in combination with the beam of a steelyard, for the purposes hereinbefore de scribed.

J. HOLCOMB. lVitnesses:

J AS. S. WIGHTMAN, CHARLES L. BARRITT. 

